


Rewrite the Gay Stars

by VanyKruemelPendragon



Category: The Greatest Showman (2017)
Genre: Dancing, Fluff, M/M, Post-Break Up, Rewrite, Romance, Singing, Song: Rewrite the Stars, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:28:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26895202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VanyKruemelPendragon/pseuds/VanyKruemelPendragon
Summary: Rewrite the Stars in Barlyle Edition. Including some actual fanfic parts of how they get into the exact situation. And a happy song-ending.
Relationships: P. T. Barnum/Phillip Carlyle
Comments: 1
Kudos: 31





	Rewrite the Gay Stars

Title: Rewrite the Gay Stars  
Summary: Rewrite the Stars in Barlyle Edition. Including some actual fanfic parts of how they get into the exact situation.  
Rating: PG 12  
Pairing: Barlyle  
Warnings: songfic, gay romance, homophobic slurs  
Genre: Romance  
Disclaimer: I don’t own The Greatest Showman, any of the actors nor do have any rights on the real backstory behind this amazing movie. Or the song (which I used as a base and then changed a couple words).

~*~*~ Rewrite the Gay Stars ~*~*~  
When Charity broke things off because she felt like making a mistake, felt exactly how her father promised him she would, that she wasted her youth on him – okay, she might have said that to hurt him, but still – Phineas didn’t know what to do. Honest to god, he just… Didn’t know anything anymore.  
Since he was a little boy he thought of giving the sweet blonde pretty girl a future worth living, a dream to come true. Their dream with their future.  
And she stood by him when the company he worked for stagnated, when he bought a museum and turned it into a show room, when he hired all sorts of extraordinary people. She even helped.  
You see, some of the people in his life weren’t so willing to trust him, a white man, after all. Lettie for example. She was a gem, a precious diamond in the rough. And she was scared to be used, to be laughed at, to be hurt again. Charity was the one who came to her the second time, telling her all about PT and his dreams, of the loving and gentle soul her husband was, of how amazingly sweet he was with his daughters.  
Charity was the one who got some of them to join in a way only women could; by being the right amount of emotional.  
To say Phineas was emotionally stunted was very wrong, but he was a man after all and one didn’t teach their sons to be emotional.  
So when Charity came to him that night, telling him how she couldn’t stay any longer, couldn’t live the life they had built for themselves for longer, it hurt like hell, but he couldn’t really handle that pain in a good way.  
It wasn’t that they were poor anymore since their circus made them wealthy and didn’t leave his daughters wish for anything. It just wasn’t at all the life she imagined when he told about his dreams.  
They split up after talking it through, him wanting only the best for her and if that wasn’t by his side any longer, he would let her go. That didn’t mean it was easy, but they learned to handle their situation.  
The blonde woman stepped back from the circus, wasn’t there every show anymore. Sometimes the girls (who didn’t know anything about the unhappiness of their parents) were with their father alone, sometimes with their mother and often with both of them. They didn’t need to know that a second bedroom was used at night after all. It would crush their hope and their little perfect world and none of them wanted this.  
He got through the pain in the end, leaving them with a gentle kind of friendship and joy, nothing like the heated affection they once felt but also not bad.  
But the circus was busy and he wasn’t getting any younger and some evenings they would talk about that too. The future, which was especially dark when PT got home, every muscle aching. He may only be forty but dancing and having two or more shows every day was bound to take it’s toll.  
One of these talks was the one that got the calm woman to worry about him and decide he could use help. Help with the circus, help with the shows. Someone younger, someone who understood the thrill of a show, the thrill of applause.  
The answer was a young and simple man, carefree but not without worries.  
Charity didn’t convince Phillip Carlyle by singing a song or anything her husband probably would have done, no. She went to him to talk in her special way, how she convinced everyone to trust Phin. Now it was only a moment of introducing them to each other so they could talk business.  
~*~*~  
Phillip would never in his life have guessed that agreeing to the risky plan of coming to the circus, of risking all of his future by angering his parents even more would change his life. Who would think something from one of his plays could happen to a boring rebellious youngster like him.  
But the second he stepped into the building, hearing the applause, he felt the energy in the air, he felt excited. This was it. This was where he was meant to be, this feeling was what he missed in his plays more often than not. Theatre written by someone who didn’t exactly agree with the views his family, all of society really, had, weren’t favoured or liked in particular, so rarely he got applause, rarely he felt this amazing and happy energy in a room.  
And as he laid eyes on the man he was to work with, the famous Phineas Taylor Barnum, he felt even weirder. As if all the air was pushed out of his lungs, as if his heart was beating close to his ears. Every sound the audience made vanished, leaving him only with the sight of the closing number, all the people from the show singing together, dancing. With PT singing, loud and clear, smiling widely.  
Their eyes met and for a second it seemed as if the time stood still, a second feeling like an hour. He took in every small detail about the other’s face, every single muscle that moved.  
Then it was over, the moment broken by the last note and a bow.  
After the audience cleared out, he followed Charity in the back area, taking in the rush and the slight chaos of everything.  
“Mommy, that was an amazing show!”  
Two little girls came running towards them, hugging the blonde tightly. “You should have seen Anne, Daddy says it was her best stunt yet!”  
Somewhat, his heart sank and he didn’t even realise why, just standing at the side lines, watching.  
And then… Phineas came, laughing with a girl in a pink outfit and talking about the stunt. Apparently, that was Anne.  
With ease Phillips eyes took everything in but again, he stopped at the man himself, at his hopefully soon-to-be working partner.  
“Phin, this is Phillip Carlyle. He’s a screen writer, but more importantly, he agreed to meeting you.”  
The director took in every inch of the man in front of him, unsure.  
“I thought I was clear that I don’t need any help?”, he asked his wife with a playful smile. “I am fine, Charity.”  
Worried, she put her hand on his biceps.  
“You may be fine alone, but we also agreed that if I were to find someone willing to help out, you’d give them a chance. Well, I found someone. So be nice and start talking business.”  
Again he felt the eyes of the older man taking him in, before he held out his hand.  
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. Say, Mister Carlyle, can you dance?”  
A faint blush crept up on Phillips neck, heating his ears.  
“I… I’m sorry, what?”  
Phineas laughed friendly.  
“Oh, we will have great fun discussing if you’re about to stay if you can’t even dance and sing. How are you to take my part in the middle of them all if you can’t do that or at least fail confidently?”  
His hand was still extended, making the younger suddenly remember his manners and take it. And even shake it after a few seconds.  
“I believe not, sir. I don’t dance usually.”  
He finally broke the handshake, still staring in those hazel eyes for far too long – not that Phillip cared about that.  
“Let’s talk business.”  
~*~*~  
Funnily enough, he did know how to dance and sing. Before he could sit down to actually start talking business in the bar Phineas brought them to, said man started ordering alcohol and singing.  
They got to an agreement, but really, Phillip wasn’t sure how much. All he remembered when he fell into his bed later that evening were those eyes. And the smirk in the corner of PT’s lips when he said “Now that we’ve established you can sing and dance, we should drop the formal behaviour. Call me Phineas, please. I insist.”  
~*~*~  
You could say a lot of things about Phineas Barnum, but he usually was a calm and rational man. And he certainly didn’t flirt, Charity, don’t be ridiculous. But something about the other man, something about the unsure Phillip with the amazing voice had him trapped from the second they laid eyes on each other. So when they trained the new choreography a few weeks later, after the dust had settled, there still was that lingering sensation, the feeling that something was… Different about him.  
Also, when they touched he found himself yearning after it, after the slight goose bumps he got every time.  
When they sang the last few notes together, ending their dance in the same pose, they were breathing hard.  
“I’m proud of you, Phillip. You managed to learn it in just a few weeks and here you were, saying you can’t dance.”  
The younger smiled.  
“Thanks, but actually I never said I can’t. I said, I believe not.”  
“Did you now?”  
Rolling his eyes the Carlyle heir went over to the backdoor, cooling his skin from the training sweat. He took a deep breath and, before he turned around, he started singing.  
“ _You know I want you_  
 _It's not a secret I try to hide…”_  
Phineas sighed. Of course he noticed. His partner wasn’t exactly subtle in his looks. Just because something like that was frowned upon in society nowadays that didn’t mean he was blind. Or, heartless for that matter. He looked at the younger man, his back to him, the slightly tensed shoulders. He was nervous and he probably should be.  
“You can’t expect me to act on this, Phil. You know of my situation, my marriage. It may be broken, but she’s still my wife.”  
Tired he looked to the ground, expecting this to be over, but his friend didn’t stop.  
“ _I know you want me_  
 _So don't keep sayin' our hands are tied_  
 _You claim it's not in the cards_  
 _And fate is pullin' you miles away_  
 _And out of reach from me!”_  
He turned around, fire in his eyes, desire. Carefully he stepped into the directors personal space, cradling his face in his own hands, thumb-stroking the cheekbone.  
“ _But you're here in my heart_  
 _So who can stop me if I decide_  
 _That you're my destiny?”_  
With shaking fingers the older one put his hand over the others’.  
“You should stop yourself. We can’t…”  
“I’ll stop. If you tell me that you want me to.”  
Squaring his shoulders Phineas opened his mouth but said nothing.  
He grinned and continued to sing, letting his thumb wander over the lips.  
“ _What if we rewrite the stars?_  
 _Say you were made to be mine_  
 _Nothing could keep us apart_  
 _You'd be the one I was meant to find_  
 _It's up to you, and it's up to me_  
 _No one can say what we get to be_  
 _So why don't we rewrite the stars?_  
 _Maybe the world could be ours_  
 _Tonight”_  
Swallowing hard, he finally stepped back from the singer, dreading every inch he put between them.  
“You know I couldn’t do that. Not to Charity, not to my girls. This… This isn’t exactly okay. They would bully them, hurt them. I could and would never do such a thing to my family. Nor would I damn you to a life besides someone who can’t be open, whose heart got broken. We’re too different, to far apart. No matter what I want. I…”  
Maybe singing made it easier. Maybe he could express himself better, show how important this was.  
“ _You think it's easy_  
 _You think I don't wanna run to you_  
 _But there are mountains_  
 _And there are doors that we can't walk through”_  
He held up one hand to stop Phillip from coming closer, from saying anything.  
“ _I know you're wondering why because we're able to be_  
 _Just you and me within these walls_  
 _But when we go outside, they're gonna be mocked, and see_  
 _They’re just why we can not just be.”_  
He was interrupted by his partner walking up to him in three big steps. Soft hands took his own, soft lips on their connected fingers.  
“You know that I don’t care that you’re older than me. That you have a history. If you want someone to be yours you have to take them, past, present and future. I know that. I want that. I want you, Phineas.”  
A shaking breath was everything possible for him not to let the tears in his eyes fall.  
“There’s just too much at stake here. My family has to be my priority.”  
Calming a little bit by turning around, not seeing the temptation in person, not seeing the Carlyle heir, he went on singing.  
“ _No one can rewrite the stars_  
 _How can you want to be mine?_  
 _Everything keeps us apart_  
 _And I'm not the one you were meant to find_  
 _It's not up to you_  
 _It's not up to me_  
 _When everyone shows us that we can’t be_  
 _How can we rewrite the stars?_  
 _If the world’s not only ours_  
 _Alone?”_  
That’s it. This was enough of this defensive thing his partner was going to do. The younger leaped forward, shutting any other protest by putting their lips together.  
And what was meant as a small peck turned into more, turned longer. They were kissing, lips moving in sync, tongues dancing like their bodies did a few minutes ago, perfectly fitting together.  
After a few seconds – or minutes? – they broke apart, leaning their foreheads together with heavy breathing.  
“You tell me you don’t feel it too? Don’t lie to me, don’t sell your own happiness short. You split animously. She’d want you to be happy and I, for one, have no problems keeping this inside these walls to keep your daughters safe. Please, Phin. I’m actually begging you not to break both our hearts… But I will leave it if you really…”  
The ‘don’t want to’ was stopped by another kiss, quicker this time.  
“Fine.”  
A wide grin spread on his face as he wiped the tears that did eventually fall from the hazel away. Their voices like one, united like their heart, sounded through the building, through the empty room.  
“ _All I want is to smile with you_  
 _All I want is to dance with you_  
 _So let’s just take all of us”_  
They started dancing while they sang, their linked hands never letting go.  
 _“It feels impossible_  
 _It's not impossible_  
 _Is it impossible?_  
 _Say that it's possible_  
 _How do we rewrite the stars?_  
 _Say, were you made to be mine?_  
 _Nothing should keep us apart_  
 _'Cause you are the chance I was meant to find_  
 _It's up to us_  
 _It's not up to them_  
 _No one should say who we have to be_  
 _And why don't we rewrite the stars?_  
 _Changing the world to be ours!_

 _You know I want you_  
 _It's not a secret I try to hide_  
 _But we might have this_  
 _The future’s ours and how we want it.”_  
“Then I can’t do anything else than hope you’re not going to regret this…”, the older man sighed.  
“There is”, his opponent said, joy in these deep blue eyes. “You can love me until one of us dies.”  
For the last time – or the first time in their new forever – they kissed, pouring all the emotions left unsaid and unsung into it, hands finding themselves in messy hair as soon as the directors back met the wall behind him.

**Author's Note:**

> Please tell me what you think?  
> Kudos, comments etc appreciated!
> 
> I also feel like I have to mention, I actually like the pairing of Charity and Phineas. The pairing I absolutely detest is Anne and Phil. Not just because it's disgustingly straight cliché, but because it was unnecessary for the story and I really don't like these kind of pairings. Sorry if someone feels bad by my words now, but it's the truth.


End file.
